Stuff You Should Know - Selects: Knife Throwing: Super Cool

Episode Date: August 27, 2022

Sure knives can cut through a steak or slash through jungle vines, but probably the coolest thing you can do with a knife is throw it. At a person mounted to a wooden wheel. Spinning around. While you’re blindfolded. Learn all about the impalement arts in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey friends when you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba who got the idea to Airbnb the backyard guest house over childhood home now The extra income helps pay her mortgage. So yeah, you might not realize it But you might have an Airbnb to find out what your place could be earning at air bnb.ca Slash host hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new I hard podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation if you do you've come to the right place? Because I'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life

Tell everybody yeah, everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with the Lance Bass on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts Hey everybody, it's Josh and for this week's select I've chosen a member of our surprisingly extensive circus art suite our episode on knife throwing Thanks to Laverne and Shirley. I always thought it was a gimmick not actually real But boy did this episode open my eyes. I hope it opens your eyes, too to the awesomeness of knife throwing Enjoy

Welcome to stuff you should know a production of I heart radio Hey, and welcome to the podcast I'm Josh Clark, there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry this stuff you should all right This bears some explanation So I was doing my Stevie from Malcolm in the middle impression Which one is Stevie? He was the kid in the wheelchair who was like breathed like that who talked like that because he I don't think he had serious asthma

Yeah, we'll see you remember him. Was he just like a classmate? Yeah, he was like his best friend I believe yeah, I don't remember. I like that show that yeah Well, that's not what I was doing really no we're slightly out of breath because we just had a fire alarm Yeah, we had to walk down four stairs for flights of stairs and not like this the one the kind of flight where it's like down Landing down again. They should call it two flights. Yeah, so we walked out eight flights of stairs Yeah, and then walked back eight more. I know right when we got down Stopped and immediately turned around to go back in yeah, it was ridiculous. It was the kind of thing that makes you say Maybe I won't leave next time. There's a fire alarm. I was prepared to hide in the studio and keep working

Yeah, we thought about it, but there's a fire marshal who works here So you can't can't run afoul with him man. He got on that orange vest quick like So I've never heard of those guys that sneak into places with Those vests yes, I have I don't is there a name for what I think these I'm sure more than one person has done this But there's these two guys in particular who? I kind of got I don't know about how famous but made a name for themselves for Putting on the orange Vests and saying basically like if you wear one of these you can get in anywhere you want almost yeah

If you have orange vest on you look like you're supposed to be there well Yeah, you got to have that Steely and sense of nerve yeah, and a walkie-talkie is probably a good thing to have to yeah But they can go anywhere because the orange vest guy that means it's something's wrong in the orange vest I have to take care of it. Yeah, like they showed pictures in the In front of a can't remember what show it was but a big big concert. Mm-hmm where they were in that Buffer area between the people in the stage Right. Yeah, I saw that yes. Yeah, and Fred Durst is like oh, there's an orange guest

He's the best guy something must be going on. What year was that? This would have been 2002 maybe the Fred Durst years Mm-hmm great years the wonder years right Wow, man, I'm hot now too. I'm I feel good. I got like that got the endorphins flowing This is gonna be a cool episode buddy. Well the irony is I So grossly out of shape I started getting on the peloton. Yeah last week Yeah, so I've been and this is not a plug for pellets. I guess it is but a little bit It's not an ad but I've been getting on that thing. So my legs are ham

Rubber rubber band hams nice right now. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Hey y'all prepare yourself for the rubber band ham That's the song right? Hey Will you indulge me for one moment? Oh, man I've been waiting for you to ask me that for a long time. All right. So I've got the old side gig going with movie crush my podcast where Every Friday I sit down with someone awesome and talk about their favorite movie and kill it Thank you But I have now added a second weekly episode that publishes on Monday

Called mini crushes and that's where I just sit in here with producer Noel. He's sort of the omniscient voice of God And he sort of chimes in and I source a lot of questions from Facebook to the movie crush Facebook page Um listener mails. I do recommendations. It's just a really interactive fan-based experience. Yeah So I want to plug the mini crushes and let everyone know that yesterday I dropped a very special mini crush which was the Chuck and it's emily's podcast debut Oh, congratulations, man. That's right. It's called the chuck and emily drink wine

Uh and talk about the oscar nominations. Oh, yes. Nice. Yeah, so we recorded this thing at home We put the kid to bed and broke out some nice wine and did our pre oscar roundup So that dropped yesterday and the next monday the day after the oscars We're going to have our post oscar roundup Where we talked about who won and what the speeches were like and who wore it best That's awesome. And emily's gonna be a star chuck. Yeah, she was actually pretty great And if you want a little peek behind the marital curtain, uh, this is this is your chance So yeah, if you could check out movie crush on uh apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast

Nice, man. Do you feel indulged? I very much good. All right. Let's talk about knife throwing So I'm a little psyched about this because Knife throwing taps into my ninja training that I did under tommy roper as I'm sure I've mentioned before Uh reading about this researching it. I never threw knives. We never made it that far into my training Maybe now I'll be I'll be hang gliding throwing knives at the same time right gonna get into both at once But I did a little throwing star stuff throwing star is like the dummies Uh knife throwing because that thing always sticks, right? Yeah, I mean depending on how many

Spikes you got coming off of it and how many beers you've had sure um, and and Whether the tree is actually like a metal pole or not You're probably gonna stick a throwing star throwing a knife is an entirely different endeavor And it's something that anybody can do that, uh, nicolas gerbis Or gerbis never met him yet um He points out that this is actually kind of like a a low-hanging hobby that you could you can get a set of knives for

10 15 bucks a piece. You probably want about five as we'll we'll explain why um Maybe six You just practice get yourself a good block of wood and practice and anybody can do this It's not like you're born to throw knives you practice And if you like it you keep going you just get better and better at it and you can impress your friends and neighbors Uh, yes, and here's the point in the show where we uh issue our coa Kids if you're out there, yeah, do not go get a steak knife from your drawer

And start throwing it at your dog. That is not a throwing knife and never throw anything at your dog kids I will come find you. Yeah, never throw anything at anybody that's sharp, but um Throwing knives are built to throw. They're weighted and balanced to throw They're not like regular old knives and we'll get into all that but just uh If you really want to try throwing knives go ask mom and dad sure Or tommy roper and get ready get ready for a no And then it's tommy roper doesn't and then play them this podcast where it is an actual um Circus art and please for the love of god tell me this is the last one

I don't think so of the circus arts. No, it's not What else is there? There's a bunch We've done the globe of death. Yeah. Oh, yeah flame swallowing Lion taming sword swallowing sword swallowing. Uh, we did circus families. Just straight up circus families Uh human cannonball This has got to be it. I don't think so man. I think it's gonna keep going in deans. We did clowns clowns for sure. Yeah Um, there's doesn't want a p.t. Barnum though. No, you mean a huge jackman. Mm-hmm What is it Chuck Stradamus, I don't know something like that I make one lucky casting call

predict one sexual predator Yeah And one bad lifetime movie or what what was shark nano sci-fi sci-fi movie three little things That's all that doesn't make me that's dr. Domines haven't won the lottery yet Think of all the things I've said that didn't come true Right way more. Yeah, I guess that's true. You know, yeah, no one ever writes in and well, that didn't happen You really got that actually they do write in to tell us we got stuff wrong a lot. That's true

So we're gonna take this seriously because we want you 10 year olds out there Who want to get your parents to let you do this to to see that you're taking this seriously by listening to this podcast first Okay, that's right. So what we're talking about specifically is known as Uh somewhat ironically as an impalement act Um Which is really weird thing to call it. It's well, it's um, yeah, it really is. I think it's a little tongue in cheek You think because the point is to not to not write the point is to not impale somebody with this kind of thing, right? That's right

And in impalement acts are an umbrella term that cover not just knife throwing but bullwhip cracking Oh Shoot sharp shooting archery William tell kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah all of those fall under the the umbrella term of impalement acts Jerry's I'm dressing over there to our left She got very hot in the fire drill Um, all right, so this goes back if we can get back on the way back machine Oh, yeah, all the way back to the late 19th century. Oh, we got to go back even further than that Are you gonna go back to ancient times? No, no, we'll still we'll just go to the 19th century

Because I'm sure Chinese people in ancient times threw stuff that's stuck in walls Well, I looked I looked up the oldest knife and China started everything apparently they did apparently they found the oldest knife 500,000 years ago. Oh the oldest knife knife So we've been using knives for longer than there have been modern humans. Yeah for sure and then we At some point probably about 400 and 99,000 years ago. We started throwing knives That's right. It's stabbing is okay, but throwing a knife is when you really can come to appreciate what a knife does Okay, and there was nothing better in it like an 80s movie Than when like James Bond threw a knife and it got a guy or American Ninja. That's what I was trained on. Yeah

All right, so wild Wild West shows Buffalo Bill and his Wild West shows Traveled throughout the United States throughout Europe. Yeah knife throwing became a big spectacle at things like this as well as Obviously sharp shooting and yeah, probably archery. They probably did all the impalement arts. They definitely did and they really brought it to the world To the to the point where you can just basically say that's where it started was Buffalo Bill's Wild West show Yeah, and this is one of those things where through a modern lens It is incredibly misogynistic to think about the fact that you say hey Let me take a scantily clad woman a target girl

Yeah, that's what they call them is target girls and throw knives at her. Yeah, just stand there Yeah, throw knives near her. That's your job. It's always a lady. She's always got on like a bikini or something She's just like almost like Wild West steampunk renaissance fair thing You know just to cover all of the all of the geek boys Dreams and desires right, but when you look at it through the modern lens, it's like man that that is totally misogynistic to uh, that is the act Um, it's got a burlesque thing going on. Yeah, sure I mean you can see what they're trying to do is is titillate the young boys in the audience

They're trying to sell tickets sure and it probably wouldn't have sold as many tickets if they just had Bill the farmhand with a balloon in his mouth right getting popped. Yeah, you know, I mean, it's still pretty cool You're still seeing the same thing But yeah, it's just basically tradition and custom to have a scantily clad woman as your target girl Again, that's what they call them is the target girl and that is the one of the two people involved in this impalement act That's right. Um, we mentioned the balloon in the mouth. That was one of the big tricks Yeah, uh, there was a german husband and wife named the gibson's Who introduced the very famous wheel of death?

In 1938 at the wringling brothers show at and Madison square garden. Have you seen this? Oh, yeah Okay, so I had seen stuff like with knife throwing before and I always thought a fleece circus was another one Oh, do you remember our fleece circus episode where it turns out that fleece circus is actually involved real fleas? Yeah, that was the best of the circus arts and everybody thought it was like no It's magnets or just your imagination power of suggestion And that's just not the case the same thing applies to knife throwing impalement acts like I always thought But did you really? Yeah, I thought I think there was like a happy days or something like that Where somebody gets volunteered. There's definitely an I love lucy with a knife act where she's the target girl

But there is some show where Maybe laverne and Shirley and I think about it Anyway, the guy's throwing them and like the knives are coming out of the backboard around them. So it's all an illusion, right? That is not true in knife acts It's your if you're the target girl a dude is throwing 12 inch long Extremely sharp pointy knives Right at your head and is trying to get as close as possible to you without hitting you correct

And again, it's not just that's just the profile where they're throwing knives around you and making like a chalk outline of your Of your body that's the profile But there's other ones like holding a cigarette in your mouth and knocking the ash off Yeah, with a knife or you're holding a flower in your mouth and they slowly like cut the stem off piece by piece There's some some pretty interesting things that people have done with knife acts. Yeah, sometimes and this is the riskiest of all moves Risker even more so than the wheel of death is when they do the When they cover the target over with paper. Yeah, the veiled wheel of death So you can't even see that spinning who is behind there. You just have to have it

Timed completely perfectly, right? But if you take a step back and think about this, there is nothing about that Act that should allow you to say oh if I throw like this I will I will miss the person because they're spinning So you have to know where their body is at every second But you've taken away how you know that which is your vision because they're behind a big sheet of paper that you're throwing knives through Yeah, and there's this guy who will talk about a little further. His name is the great throw dini

Love this guy. Yeah, he How much the bunch of stuff he has done something. It's probably the most dangerous Most impressive knife throwing act anyone's ever done He did the veiled wheel of death with two target girls on it So he has two girls strapped to a board spinning Behind a big piece of paper that he can't see them through and he's throwing knives at them fast Yes, very fast the guy threw him on an average of a knife every 0.59 seconds. Yeah

And he didn't hit either one of them Amazing it is amazing. It's so amazing. I think we should take a break here and re regroup Hey everybody when you're staying at an air bnb, you might be like me wondering could my place be an air bnb? And if it could what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about lauren and noba skosha who realized she could air bnb Her cozy backyard tree house and the extra income helps cover her bills and pays for her travel So, yeah, you might not realize it, but you might have an air bnb too find out what your place could be earning at air bnb.ca slash host

Hey, i'm lance bass host of the new i hard podcast frosted tips with lance bass The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road Ah, okay. I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would lance bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do you've come to the right place because i'm here to help this. I promise you. Oh god Seriously, I swear and you won't have to send an sos because i'll be there for you Oh, man, and so my husband michael. Um, hey, that's me Yep, we know that michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life

step by step Oh, not another one Kids relationships life in general can get messy you may be thinking this is the story of my life Oh, just stop now if so tell everybody you everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with the lance bass on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts I'm mangashat together and to be honest I don't believe in astrology

But from the moment I was born it's been a part of my life in india It's like smoking you might not smoke, but you're gonna get second-hand astrology and lately I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention Because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you It got weird fast Tantric curses major league baseball teams cancelled marriages k-pop But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology

My whole world came crashing down situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father And my whole view on astrology It changed Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too Listen to skyline drive and the iHeart Radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts Oh We're back. We just watched uh one hour of great Thordini videos right uh, he apparently Caught on like in its fifties

Yeah, he's like, hey, I'm pretty good at this back in 1996. He just just I guess somebody was like Have you tried throwing knives and he said no I haven't and they were like well try throwing knives and he said well fine I will a couple weeks later. He tried throwing knives and he said I really like this. Yeah Um, he said it felt natural and right so he started throwing knives and entered competitions and um Started winning. I think he became world champion within like two years. He beat the other four people Right And then he said, you know what this is fun and all like these competitions, but

I think I want to try and act like an old throwback impalement act So he started one with me by tuxedo and basically bought his wife barbara Target girl get up. Oh, is that his uh target girl one of them? Yeah, uh, I think she may have been the original one Taught her to smoke cigarettes so he could knock the ash off of the end of them and there you go Impalement act achieved, but not only that chuck like the guy is like legitimately The best knife thrower on the planet. Well, he's one of them. He holds a record for fastest But boy you go down a youtube rabbit hole and to like people like Ralph thorn and

Better than great Thordini, huh? Well, great Thordini does the impalement act as in the circus art Ralph thorn is like if you're running through the woods Chasing somebody I haven't seen this guy. This is well. That's the thorn style. We'll get into those styles later Okay, gotcha, but um, yeah, he will like launch himself off of a tree stump in the air and throw one behind his back And see now that's basically the training. I was indoctrinated. Yeah. Yeah, like martial arts. Sure real world suburban neighborhood dangers There's a raccoon. Oh, no

No, no, no, you're not throwing at raccoons Um, all right. So a raccoon comes at me. Well, sure. Okay um Here's what you need if you if you're gonna throw a knife you need a throwing knife The throwing knife like I said, it's not a steak knife. It is very much made to be thrown. It is balanced Uh, so that you throw it and we'll talk about the different ways that they're balanced But one thing they are not is uh sharp on the sides. Yeah, the edges. Yeah, they're very pointy Right, but um, they're dull on the edges because you're gonna a lot of times to be throwing it by that blade

um So get a knife for throwing. Yeah, the old saying um sharp of point Sharp of point is the point Sharp of edge Uh, it's doesn't it does you know good. Sure that old saying. Yeah, that's a great thing I think that should go on a t-shirt. It should so, um

Um, yeah, you want a sharp point, but there's there's nothing about a sharp edge That's going to help you in any way shape or form because the whole point Again, it's the point is the point that's going to stick into that end of whatever that Target is which is usually a block of wood, right? Yes. So, um Depending on where how you're going to throw it you want to throw the heavy end first And there's a reason for this the reason is is that uh, if you want to get technical about it velocity equals um Distance divided by time, right?

And when you're throwing a knife, especially the heavy end first The heavy end has traveled a further distance in the same amount of time the lighter end This friends creates something very important in knife throwing although not fundamental which is spin Okay, that's right. And so if you throw the throw the knife you're going to throw it either blade end Or handle end and the end regards what you're holding when you throw it And if you're holding say a knife handle

And you're throwing it from the handle end you're the front Of the knife the point is going to be weighted. It's going to be heavier so that that starts the spin If you're throwing it blade first the handle itself will be heavier. That's right. So that will start the spin And there's a couple of different Depending on which way you're throwing there's a this spin is going to take place over this the course of um A very short distance actually and so let me let me just back up a second here. Okay There's there's some factors involved. Okay

They are distance to target length of knife My weight imbalance and the knife type right so the distance to target is going to is going to Tell you what type of throw you want? That's right. Um The kind of knife They say for every good rule of thumb here just throw it out But they do mention a rule of thumb regardless That says a blade that weighs about one ounce per inch

So um and that's per inch of your the whole knife. Yeah, so um That it shouldn't well you can throw whatever you want, but 10 to 16 ounces is a good starter knife You know and about that long or maybe 12 to 14 inches and about that many ounces is right where you want to start off as a Beginner right and all kinds of shapes to like definitely some of them are like little spears Uh, some have multiple points more like throwing stars. Uh, they really run the gamut right So depending on how you're going to throw whether it's a handle throw or a blade throw The weight of the knife is going to be either in the handle or the blade

It's going to be the opposite of where you're holding the knife Um, and if you throw Holding the blade you're going to throw a half turn. It's a half turn throw, right? Yeah, and the the reason they call it that is because the knife only makes one half turn The the blade Straightens out from your hand toward the target and then that's the only turn it makes Yeah, it's not like uh in the movies a lot of times you'll see you go Right in turn like nine times and stick the guy in the forehead. Yeah, that's really not what you're doing with knife throwing

No, it's basically if you if you're throwing it by the blade It's going to make one half turn and that's it. So you if you're blade throwing you would stay in closest to the target Right, so if some guy's coming at you dressed as a raccoon and you know He's going to hurt you and you can throw a knife and he's real close you would throw by the blade That's right. Uh And in fact, I don't even know if it's possible To throw a knife like they do in the movies that I don't think so just tumbles Because every video I saw they're like you try and prevent tumbling right as much as you can

Yeah, like that's the whole game. It's too Uh because physics says that a revolving object that suddenly breaks free Will continue to move in a straight line tangential to the point at which it's released right in other words That release point is a little tricky, you know, you got to dial that in Uh, but we'll get to that too and on the actual throwing right um, so the uh, the next the next furthest away from the target is if you're holding the The knife by the handle right and you're throwing it. It's going to make that's a full turn full spin Uh to where the blade goes from facing the target facing away from the target and back to facing the target in time to stick

Into that target and not embarrassingly bounce off because it hit the blade or the uh handle first That's very humiliating right so humiliating. Uh, and then the last one is the furthest one away And it's about the most you would ever want a blade to turn which is two times That's about 30 feet or about 10 meters away from your target You could possibly get it to spin twice But usually you just wanted to spin once or half And that's it. Yeah, and uh, did you say a half turn is about seven or eight feet? I don't think I did. I just said it was the closest. Yeah about seven or eight feet

It depends full spin about 12 to 15 and like you said the the great throwdini double Bundini right double twist. Yeah is what up to 20 30 feet Yeah, although one of these other throws that we're going to get into This thorn throw one of the benefits is you can throw from anywhere right supposedly So, uh, we're going to take one more break and then we're going to come back and teach you A little bit about throwing and then uh, what to look for in a good knife Hey everybody when you're staying at an air bnb you might be like me wondering Could my place be an air bnb and if it could what could it earn?

So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lauren and Nova Scotia who realized she could air bnb her cozy backyard tree house And the extra income helps cover her bills and pays for her travel So, yeah, you might not realize it, but you might have an air bnb too Find out what your place could be earning at air bnb dot ca slash host Hey, I'm lance bass host of the new i hard podcast frosted tips with lance bass The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road Ah, okay. I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would lance bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation?

If you do you've come to the right place because I'm here to help this. I promise you. Oh god Seriously, I swear and you won't have to send an sos because I'll be there for you Oh, man, and so my husband Michael. Um, hey, that's me Yep, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life step by step Oh, not another one Kids relationships life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life Oh, just stop now. If so, tell everybody you everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye. Bye. Bye. Bye

Listen to frosted tips with the lance bass on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts I'm mangesha tickler and to be honest I don't believe in astrology, but from the moment I was born. It's been a part of my life in india It's like smoking you might not smoke But you're gonna get secondhand astrology and lately I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and Pay attention Because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you

It got weird fast Tantric curses major league baseball teams cancelled marriages k-pop But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology My whole world came crashing down situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father And my whole view on astrology It changed Whether you're a skeptic or a believer I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to skyline drive and the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts

Okay, you know about how close you want to stay into the target depending on whether you're holding the knife by the blade or the handle The good thing is is there are a couple of different grips, but they're very similar So what does that say? That I got a couple of places to stand He's got a couple of places to stand Okay, so you've got you know about how close you want to stay into the target depending on whether you're holding the knife by the blade Or the handle

The good thing is is there are a couple of different grips, but they're very similar. So if you're like, I want to get into blade throwing first because that looks pretty cool. You're going to basically pinch the blade of the knife. And remember, these are not sharp edges, so you should be fine. If you do, I saw, if you are using a sharp edge knife,

you want to hold the blunt end. Yeah, but you don't even want to do that. You don't even want to do that. So it doesn't really matter which way you're holding it, but if it is sharp on one edge, hold the other edge. And you're just basically pinching it between your thumb and your first three fingers. Just a little pinch.

Yeah, just a teeny pinch. Maybe stick your pinky out for effect. Sure. All right, and that's the blade throw. Yeah, and you've already got your target, by the way, at this point. I know you mentioned a block of wood, but they recommend aim small.

What is it, start small, aim small? Yeah. Which is don't, you don't need a tree trunk sliced up and put on a wall. Like you just need like a whatever, a little 12 inch by 12 inch block of wood. Or maybe if you want to screw a bunch of wood together and then draw a target on there, that's fine too.

Yeah, you should probably glue though, because the screws might, your knife might bounce off of them. Yeah. You know? If you're using metal screws? Okay. Sure.

As opposed to the traditional wooden dowel. Right. So. Dovetail joint. Right. So the, that's the, what did I say? That's the blade throw, right? Yeah, you did blade throw.

There's a handle throw too. And this one is called a hatchet throw or hammer throw. Or the handle throw, you could call it too. And everybody will know what you're talking about. Yeah, and you stand your little further back for this one. Right. Because you've got your full turn going. Yeah.

And then you just grip it like a baseball bat and swing away, right? Right. Close your eyes and you hope for the best. You say ninja strike. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

So the cool thing is what you were saying about starting small, aiming small, is that when you figure out that there's actually just a few mechanics going on here, you'll be able to tell what part of your throw is actually off. Yeah. Whether it's distance, whether it's when you're releasing,

whether it's how you're gripping it. The problems or the issues with your throw will show up and you'll be able to read based on how the knife is landing or sticking, what's wrong with your throw. Yeah. Like if you are throwing, I think blade first and it sticks, but it's sticking at a really hard angle where the handle is pointing down.

Right. Then they say maybe just move back six inches with your stance. That's, is it? Yeah, you're right. You're right. And then try it again. Yeah, because that means that your, the knife

didn't get its full rotation. Right. You wanted to basically be sticking straight out perpendicular to the target. Yeah. That's a correct throw, as you're learning to do this. Yeah, and did you say that it's generally your opposite leg of your throwing hand forward?

Oh yeah, so yeah, so the stance? Yeah, I mean generally, but then again, I also saw this Russian guy that threw with his throwing leg or the same leg as his throwing hand forward. Right. And he was like, you know, it all works basically. It was his thing. This guy was great.

I knew you had the Italian thing going on, but a Russian, that was good. Oh yeah, I can, I can do that. So let's get into the throw them, okay? So the stance, I should say. So with the stance, you're standing with your, your, your throwing arm, the leg opposite your throwing arm is closest to the target.

Kind of like you're throwing a dart. You know how you throw a dart? Yes. Okay, it's like that. Well, actually that's not quite true. When I throw, when you throw a dart, you're the leg that is, the foot that is on the line is the same side as your throwing hand.

Is it? Yeah. Okay, well this is the opposite of that. Maybe I've been throwing darts wrong all this time. So the leg opposite your throwing arm is the one you want closest to the target. Traditionally. Right, traditionally.

Your weight is on your back leg though as you're throwing. And what you're doing is you're gripping the knife, however you want to blade or handle. Either way you line it up, right? With your eye against the target. Bring your arm back behind your head and then keeping your wrist straight. You don't want to flip your wrist or anything like that.

You bring it in an arc in front of you and you finish like you are shaking somebody's hand. You're going, hey, how are you? Right? But I got a knife. Right, the thing is, here's the thing. You're gonna want to release at that handshake part when your hand is straight out in front of you

and you're gonna find nothing but heartache trying to throw a knife like that. Oh, if you release it. Right at the end. Oh no, it'll go straight down. Right, it'll go down in front of you because when you release an object that's going in an arc, it wants to go straight in a tangential line

from the top of the arc, right? That's right. So you want to release it at the top of the arc. That's right. So that is, I was practicing just in the air. I know. Trying to make my brain release it at the top and that is really difficult to do

because you think initially that the knife is gonna go shooting up into the air. It's not, it's gonna go straight. That's right. Pretty neat stuff. That's right. And this is just, I don't even know what the traditional throw is called,

do you? I know, I didn't see a name for it. Well, there are some other throws which I might as well go ahead and mention I've teased. One is the aforementioned Thorn style from Ralph Thorn. Okay, that's named after a dude. It's named after a dude. Either way, it sounds cool.

Yeah, this one, did you see this one at all online? I didn't see that one. I kind of had an idea of what they were talking about based on the article. Yeah, they say that it resembles spear throwing, the action. I guess in that you're not taking the knife like behind your ear,

you're sort of just extending your whole arm and doing a big, almost like you're throwing a baseball pitch. Sure, that's what I imagine. Yeah, that's what it sort of looked like. But like sidearm? Sort of like a bunch of people were doing it different and then this guy's jumping all over behind his back

like Thorn style seems to be to just do whatever you want. Okay. That's not true. Thorn's probably just like so angry right now. He's like, yeah, come on to my woods. I'll show you how I do whatever I want. Then there was the Russian style and this look, it's a very compact.

The elbow is in near the body. You hold the knife behind the ear and this I saw was a little bit more like, you know, like that kind of thing. So that seems to me like, depending on how close you're holding your elbow to your body, like you're going to chop the top of your ear off.

Well, you want to avoid that. Sure. But it's more like you're pushing it out rather than throwing it like a tomahawk. Right. So that's what I thought Moomiyuan style was like where you're basically like shoving the knife forward. Well, what I saw with that style,

and again, all these videos were different. So I don't know if these people are just, I mean, it is YouTube, it's not like they're like, I'm an accredited thornist, but the Moomiyuan style looks like they were having the knife like in their hand, like kind of in their palm and would throw it. But I don't know if that was because of the knife,

because the guy on there was like, this is a Beau Shuriken spike, which is thrown in the Moomiyuan style. Right. That's what this article said too. People really get into this online though. Right. That's what I did discover.

So the three things, those three types, thorn style, Moomiyuan and Russian style, those are all styles of knife throwing that involve no spin. That's the common thread that they all have. Yeah, which is pretty cool. It is cool. And there's a couple of reasons you want to do this.

Most knife throwers say that's really tough on the joints after a while. Oh yeah. That's what they say. And the reason why is because it involves like doing crazy like snapping motions with your elbow and your wrist and stuff. Whereas with knife throwing,

it's just a smooth arc you're making in. Almost all of the motion is in your shoulder and your elbow, your wrist stays straight and you just are generally releasing your grasp on the knife, right? So Thordini can do this into his 80s. All day long. Right, yeah.

With the no spin styles, it's just tougher. It's more of a snapping motion that like you're gonna get tennis elbow after a while. The reason the advantage that these have is like if you're trying to throw a knife through a hole, you can't have a 12 inch knife spinning making this 24 inch arc basically or circle. You just want to send it straight

like a missile through that hole. When he's throwing a knife through a hole. Into some dude's leg. Okay. Into his calf. And then you pounce on him, put your hand over his mouth and nose until he falls asleep.

And then you can advance further toward the castle. Well, the Russian guy I saw was talking about the first thing you do is find the balance point. So he held out his finger and put the knife on it until like a little seesaw until he found the exact point and he's like, there's balance point. So once you find out where that is, that will teach you exactly how to hold it

in any scenario basically. I don't know where that balance point is though. So whatever you're doing though, if this sounds like something you want to do, whether it's spin throwing or no spin throwing techniques, the key to knife throwing of any kind is practice, practice, practice. And this article actually gives

a really good piece of advice. It says, get a little set of throwing knives. The best you can afford because the more expensive they are typically with them, the better, the more well made they are. Yeah. And get some, like a set of three or five or whatever because you're going to have to practice repeatedly.

And if you have one knife and you're standing 15 feet away and you throw it, you have to go get it. You have to throw it again and go get it. That's not nearly as fun as trying to throw like five quickly in a row. So number one, you're gonna be more entertained. But also if you do, no matter how many knives you have, if you start to lose focus,

if you start to get bored or frustrated, stop. Sure. Because if there's one thing about knife throwing, it's meant to be fun. And if you're practicing with your friends, they don't stand to the side of the target. They don't stand directly behind you. I would recommend they stand well behind you

and well to one side of you. I've got one even better. Don't even practice. Don't even let your friends anywhere near you. You have to be alone while you're practicing throwing knives, but you have to be in text or phone contact with your parents. We're watching you from a safe distance.

So live streaming it to your parents. Maybe so. You should go and look at some of these Ralph Thorn videos because the funniest part is the almost not angry, but just his trudge toward the target afterward is very like, I don't know, it's weird. He'll jump up in the air and throw a few. And then he's just like,

and then walks over and undoes it from the log. Like, I don't know. All the pizzazz leaves as soon as he's thrown. That's when you need the pizzazzes during the throwing. The rest is just wasted energy. Yeah, but you don't see Throdini. That's the difference between an impalement act and a dude in his backyard on YouTube.

Well, Throdini has the smarts to hire an editor to edit that part out. Yeah, that's a good point. I don't know if we said the great Throdini's name. His name is David Adamovich. And he's a neat guy. Great name. So if you wanna know more about the great Throdini

or what's Thorn's first name? Jesse Thorn. The other Thorn. Ralph Thorn. Ralph Thorn or any kind of knife throw and go check out some videos. Again, do not do this unless your parents say it's okay and do it safely.

Don't be stupid and never, ever throw at any living thing ever of any kind. Ever or Josh and Chuck are gonna be so mad at you. That's right. And in the meantime, let's listen to some list of your mail. All right, I'm gonna call this, oh, welcome back to the fold. This just delighted me.

I like this one too. You know, in April, it's gonna be 10 years. I know. Which is just nutty, nutty, nutty. I know. No one ever thought we'd be doing this so long. Jerry has an age to a day. No, she hasn't, but she's taking on more clothes

as the podcast has gone on. In celebration. She's getting ready for her gig as a target girl. All right, guys, and Jerry, whoever else is stuff you should know might actually be reading this. I don't know how fan mail works is what she says. This is how it works.

Yeah, we read it. I realize that the most I'm realistically going to achieve by stating this is making you feel old. But when I was 11 years old, in 2011, stuff you should know was my favorite podcast and listened to every episode. Kept on listening for a couple of years until I was 13 when I stopped listening to it because...

That's when we lose them is when they get too cool for school. That's right. So for those of you who are teenagers who have kept listening through your teen years. We think you're cool. You're doing it right. Your peers probably don't, but we do.

I have no idea why I stopped, guys. Up until today, I actually figured you guys must have stopped making it. And I never bothered to go back and check until today. Isn't that funny to think back? To think that someone can think back like... Oh, remember those guys? Like, what are how long that lasted?

Daily, weekly life. So funny. Yeah. I'm not sure how to properly put how I feel into words though because not a lot else from when I was that age still exists. I grew up with the internet, but poking around Google and looking for old sites, I used to just, it reveals a trail of deleted accounts

and domain names that no longer resolve. Does she find an old computer or something? I don't know, maybe. She's definitely taken a trip down memory lane. I know, man. I've moved countries, so most of my physical stuff was either given away or thrown into a landfill across the Atlantic.

The fact that stuff you should know still exists and is still making episodes that are just as good as I remember them being is incredible. Very nice to see. Wow, this is crazy. This is from Hazel. She asked if we have a PO box so she can send some Jaffa cakes.

Oh, that's nice. I don't remember if I gave Hazel our address. Oh, please do. But Hazel, if you write back, we'll give you our address and we can get some Jaffa cakes. Thanks for coming back. Yeah, we appreciate that.

And we're glad to have kept the home fires burning for you there, Hazel. I'd like to hear from Sarah. Sarah Sparrow, the amazing 90-year-old fan. Yeah, she's 11 years old. I think she was at the time. No, she was like... Was she like eight or nine?

Yeah, I can't remember when she started. Yeah, but she was really young, yeah. She became a cool teenager. She definitely did. But maybe she'll become an actually cool college student and come back. That's right. Well, thanks a lot, Hazel.

If you left us and came back and thought it was as good as ever, we can hear that stuff all day long. You can tweet to us at SYSK Podcast. You can join us on facebook.com slash stuff you should know. You can send us an email to stuffpodcast.howstuffworks.com and as always, join us at our home on the web, stuffyoushouldknow.com.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new I Heart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander

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